There is a school of thought that says inflation will be horrendous after the deflationary period. Well of course taking into account the low base, inflation will accelerate due to the enormous amount of money that was printed. I understand the Fed's balance sheet already has doubled. I cant imagine when that happens. Equity prices will have no impetus to move up. Gold will be worth having. The inflation index doesnt really present the hardship in life. As Bickeli pointed out, food inflation is on the rise and could still be in the near future. Jim Rogers is going long on agricultural commodities. So what do we have here, more lay-offs because of squeezing margins and less food on the table. Arghh.

its simple really - prices decline as the value of cash increases. The value of cash is set by supply and demand - just as all other assets. Supply is diminishing greatly as the money supply constricts due to vanishing debt (asset valuation writedowns, defaults, etc.) and equity capital, eroding the value of virtually everyone's reserves - thus driving the value of cash upwards, and all the goods it can buy downwards. />Just don't make the mistake of confusing cash with money - I'm afraid that will be a topic for 2009.

It’s really a scary news about recent financial crunch. Some of my family members were request by their company to choose unpaid rest and few of them lost their job. Once crowded high way to the Pudong airport is now becoming not crowded anymore. Few months ago, we need to spend around half hour to join jam-packed traffic. But now, it’s rare to see same scenario just like before.

Why don't the whole world media agree to publish only the good news and minimised the bad news? And then my weak heart don't have to be scared by headline like "DOW crashed!" and maybe I go out and buy myself some candy instead of trying to save those penny in my piggy-bank...hehe..just joking..

BUT I do think ordinary people like me are affected by what is constantly on their TV..you know its a strong effect when my mom start wondering if she should save more...

As a government employee expecting a 4% pay raise come January 1st I welcome deflation, I understand the dire straits it could pose to the rest of society, but to be honest, I don't care, I won't be losing my job anytime soon.

What a huge sample of newspapers you guys got... but sure, it is a very true trend, and you don't need many more newspapers than these ones to see the overall trend.Of course, as PinkSwan says though - you are probably gonna get even more mentions if you search for "Dancing with the stars"... here in Sweden the big saturday-entertainment is "Stars on ice" though...

I just bought more than i should have at J.Crew seven days ago. then 2 or 3 days ago, they slashed prices by between 20-30% on the things i bought. I called them, and they gave me a price adjustment, which really amounts to little more than a $200 credit on my credit card bill that i was not expecting. Hooray for deflation!

Case in point regarding my previous pre-lunch note: I just went to my favorite burrito joint, and they raised their prices this week. I said "good for you" and they said "did you say 'good'?" I replied "maybe not good for me, but I do want you to stay in business so it has to happen."Sure there has been deleveraging and will be more, and that will affect prices of luxury items like new cars, new homes, enormous tvs, etc. But the essentials will reflect the money creation that the Fed is doing.

Looking at the BLS data, the "All items less food and energy" column shows a -0.1 CPI for the month of October. This can hardly be considered deflation. Notice the hypocrisy of the Fed and Treasury when it comes to price statistics: they always pick the lowest inflation number. That way they can justify their next inflationary action. Bloomberg had a piece today explaining that deflation as a concern will cause them to lower interest rates more. When we were having massive inflation even by the government's statistics, they sure did not raise rates. Inflation leads them to inflate, stagnation leads them to inflate, and deflation leads them to inflate.The answer from the central bankers is always the same.On another note, even though energy was at -43.1% annualized for the last 3 months, food is up 5.7% annualized for the last three months. When you lose your job and no longer need to drive to work, somehow I think food is the more important index.

Surely the mentions of everything has jumped in the last month. The US election dominated column inches, something has to fill the vacuum. Here in the UK the media are going slightly mad over a celebrity dancing TV program.